True North Stories

Revenge can’t undo what was done.When young psychic Emma Jackson experiences a terrifying vision of a teenage girl being raped, she is shaken to the core. As her husband, David Harris, tries to comfort her, his worry increases when her shattered voice whispers, “Her name was Maggie.” David questions the wisdom of his team of investigators using the paranormal to solve cold cases.Emma and David, and Bryan, a retired police office and his wife, Laura, have been working together with New Elgan Police Service to solve cold cases.They learn that Maggie was a young woman who went missing twenty years ago and has moved on to the afterlife.During a powerful séance, she takes over Emma’s body and demands the investigative team take on her case to find her children.Except, at sixteen years of age at the time of her disappearance she had no children.When the team uncovers a sinister baby ring where young women are kidnapped and forced to breed made-to-order children for the elite, they are shocked to learn their nemesis, the Dark Hands of Anubis is behind the human trafficking.Emma insists on continuing the case, but isn’t Emma’s sanity and peace of mind worth more than solving a cold case from the beyond?Revenge may not be enough … when the cost is way too high.

Sam Wiebe’s Invisible Dead meets John McMahon’s The Good Detective in this gritty detective novel that centers around a man’s struggle to solve a crime that will guarantee the safety of his loved ones, while he faces life changing consequences of his family’s alcoholic past.  Private investigator Jake Joelsen is going to prison for assaulting his sick mom’s abusive boyfriend, but thanks to a suspended sentence, he has two weeks to earn as much money as possible so he can financially support his mom when he’s inside.Enter Nia Rowe, who hires Jake to find her troubled sister, Sadie, a member of a mega-church called Watershed Moments. Jake struggles to stay sober as he encounters old haunts he’s never come to terms with, while trying to rescue Sadie from the grip of powerful people willing to do anything to protect their place on the highest rungs of society.

When the volleyball hits the floor mere inches from Reese’s hands, her dreams of playingcollege ball shatter.After consecutive failures on the court, in the classroom, and in her relationships, she’s doneplaying the part of perfect daughter, perfect student, and perfect athlete. It’s time for a new life.Enter Cassie Brentwood.Bold. Reckless. Free. Cassie is everything Reese isn’t yet longs to be. They quickly becomefriends and Cassie introduces her to Liam, a mysterious guy from Snapchat. Blinded by his lovebombing and the desperation to shed her perfect image, Reese plunges head first into their world.It feels instantly thrilling… until it’s not.Girls are disappearing from nearby towns, however no one in their quiet small town seemsconcerned.But when Liam’s behaviour grows darker, Reese’s new life begins to unravel. She ignores thewarnings. The red flags. The little voice screaming to her that something’s not right. Until she’sfar from home, trapped in a nightmare she can’t escape.With no one left to trust, Reese has to fight to reclaim the life she was so eager to leave behind.She wanted freedom. Now, she just wants to go home.At least she has to try.Told with searing honesty and lyrical depth, At Least I’m Trying is a poignant novel about mentalhealth, girlhood, and what happens when the version of yourself you’ve worked so hard tobecome starts to fall apart.

A woman comes face to face with her rapist at his engagement party. A teen reluctantly celebrating the first Christmas after her mother’s death gets caught cutting her wrists by a stranger. A student hands in a box of Kraft Dinner as her final assignment, and a bipolar art teacher grieves her divorce by online shopping. The Beauty and the Hell of It & Other Stories is a collection of stories about women (and one man) who quietly resist and the resulting moments of transition, acceptance, and vindication. Whether they wrestle with grief, growth, trauma, or all three, these characters don’t give in to expectations about who or how they should be. These stories will appeal to readers who enjoyed the pivotal moments of ordinary life in Sophie Stocking’s Walking Leonard and Other Stories and those who want a slice of contemporary womanhood served up with dark humour as offered in Meghan Bell’s Erase and Rewind.

FBI agent Frank Adler’s life is upended when his daughter vanishes on what should have been the trip of a lifetime. No witnesses. No demands. No trace.Refusing to wait for an investigation from the sidelines, Frank breaks protocol and follows a trail of clues that lead him into a shadowy underworld. As he digs deeper, he finds himself caught in an interconnected web of lies, cartels, cover-ups, corporate greed, and dangerous players who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.With the body count rising and time running out, Frank must uncover the truth before he loses everything he loves.

The trillionaires were powerful enough to reshape the world, but it wasn’t enough. Now they want more . . .In a world where trillionaires assisted by powerful AIs call themselves gods, a world where miracles are engineered and secret technology is wired into the very air, James Kessler and Maree Shell stumble upon a conspiracy that defies possibility: the new gods’ plan to encode their consciousness into the world and seize control of reality itself, to literally become the gods they have so far only pretended to be.From the world’s gleaming new AI-crafted cities to the crumbling ruins of the old ones, the two unlikely allies, one a childhood survivor of the Bad Times and the other a privileged daughter of wealth, must run a gauntlet of hostile AIs, vengeful modern-day gods, and mysterious ancient deities, desperately trying to disrupt the plans of the most powerful people who have ever lived. Nothing less than the fate of free will itself hangs in the balance.A mind-bending cyberpunk thriller of rebellion and redemption, Gods of a New World is a visceral dive into the soul of a world on the brink.

Desire or desperation, revenge or retribution—how far would you go to realize a dream? The twenty-two authors in this collection explore the possibilities, with predictably unpredictable results.Featuring stories by Pam Barnsley, Linda Bennett, Clark Boyd, C.W. Blackwell, Amanda Capper, Susan Daly, James Patrick Focarile, Rand Gaynor, Gina X. Grant, Julie Hastrup, Beth Irish, Charlie Kondek, Edward Lodi, Bethany Maines, Jim McDonald, donalee Moulton, Michael Penncavage, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild, Debra Bliss Saenger, and Joseph S. Walker.

Detective Mike O'Shea is spiraling—consumed by painkiller addiction, alcohol, and the crushing weight of unresolved grief. As his personal demons threaten to take control, he’s pulled into a chilling case: a woman is found dead, her son rotting beside her, discovered only when neighbors are alerted by the unbearable stench of decay.Meanwhile, O'Shea’s obsession with the killer of his former partner, Sal, continues to haunt him. The elusive murderer has evaded justice for years, but O'Shea has always suspected something more—an untold truth buried beneath the surface. As he digs further, he uncovers a terrifying reality: the killer’s freedom isn’t just a coincidence—it’s the result of high-level corruption that runs far deeper than he ever imagined.As the conspiracy begins to unravel, the threat intensifies, drawing in those closest to O'Shea. Detective Sergeant Amanda Black, one of the few who knows the whole story, becomes the target of an assassination attempt. With her pending promotion and O'Shea’s growing addiction-fueled paranoia, he starts to wonder if he can still trust her—especially if she’s crossing over.Haunted by years of policing that have left him physically and emotionally scarred, O'Shea is worn down by the weight of it all. Torn between his duty and an overwhelming sense of exhaustion, he struggles to hold on as the stakes rise and the lines between right and wrong blur. He must decide whether to keep fighting—or walk away, knowing the cop killer who took Sal’s life still roams free.

In the tumultuous world of high school, Emma grapples with a devastating breakup, a damning social media scandal that threatens her reputation, and an overwhelming sense of isolation. Her parents are distant, she has no true friends, and her despair deepens with each passing day.One fateful night during a sudden snowstorm, Emma forges a connection with Sarah, a girl who navigates the treacherous high school terrain of 2001. In this improbable friendship, they bond through the digital ether, supporting each other's struggles at the same school, in the same town, while separated by two decades.The friendship becomes a lifeline for both girls. Their lives bear striking similarities, yet the differences are equally profound. While Sarah is spared from the perils of social media, she gains self-assurance and begins to discover herself. In contrast, Emma’s struggles intensify as she faces dire consequences for her actions online and misguided romantic entanglements.Sarah watches helplessly as Emma's life unravels, yearning to help but bound by the constraints of time. Emma’s perilous descent accelerates, and the danger of not receiving the help she desperately needs looms large. Sarah, trapped twenty years in the past, must find a way to intervene before it’s too late.This gripping tale of bridging the gap between eras explores the enduring power of human connection, the complexities of teenage life, and the lengths to which a stranger will go to save a life.